G0'THLAND (Saved. Gottland), an island in the Baltic, lying between 57°-58° n. w lat., and 18c-19° 30' e. long., with Faroe, Gotska, Sandoe, and other smaller islands, constitutes the Swedish ken or province of Gottland and Wisby. Pop. '76, 54,649; and the superficial area about 1200 sq.m. ' Chief town, Wisby (q.v.). Gothland consists mainly of terrace-like slopes of limestone formation, encircled by cliffs which are broken by numerous deep fiords, more especially on the w. coast of the island, the eastern parts of which are flat. The surface is in many parts billy and well wooded, and the soil is fruitful and well cultivated. The climate is sufficiently mild to allow of the grape and mulberry ripening in favorable situations in the open air." The land is divided among many small proprietors, who live in separate and detached homesteads. The island of Gothland was for ten years •(from 1439 to 1449) the self-elected place of banishment of king Eric X., who, after long-continued dissensions with his Swedish
and Danish subjects, retired to Wisby, where be shut himself up in the castle with his favorite mistress and a band of followers. Having refused to resume his duties, he was declared to have forfeited the crowns of Sweden and Denmark, and thenceforward he subsisted by pillaging the ships and infesting the coasts of the lands he had formerly governed. The remains of numerous churches and monasteries in every part of the 9 island-attest its former wealth, and afford many noble specimens of Gothic architecture. The name Gothland or Gotland (q. v.) is also used to indicate the southern division of the kingdom of Sweden, including eleven provinces besides the island of Gothland.